GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Two studies published by the American Psychological Association (APA) about perceptions and race led to these headlines: “We Think Black Men are Bigger than White Men (Even When they're Not)” and “Black Boys Are Perceived as Older and Less Innocent than Their White Peers.” These studies, one in 2014 and the other in 2017, found that people’s perceptions of African-American…
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GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language In light of the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, ADL offers a four-part lesson that examines the debate over school integration within the broader context of the Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 and the desegregation of Central High School in Little…
Teach students about cyberhate using two recent news stories and have them reflect upon the best way to confront cyberhate.
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language Teaching Opportunity: Exploring the Electoral Process
Political debates can provide important learning opportunities. When election time comes around—whether it be a presidential election or a local contest for mayor, city council member, governor or member of Congress—these debates give teachers an opening to explore candidates, issues and the electoral process with…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Racial Discrimination and Safeguarding the Right to Vote
In August 2015, we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act which was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. The Voting Rights Act is landmark federal legislation that was enacted during the Civil Rights Movement and was intended to prevent racial discrimination in voting. Prior to that, even though Black…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening In March 2015, we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights, which led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act later that year. The anniversary provides a good opportunity to teach about activism and voting rights then and now. After the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which largely addressed racial discrimination and segregation, voting rights…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language, Mathematics “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
These celebrated words from the Brown v. Board of Education Majority Opinion ushered in an unprecedented era of civil rights and school restructuring in the United States. In 1954, when this…
Engage students in analyzing race, privilege and power, using the killing of Michael Brown as an example.
Teach students about the situation in Ferguson, MO in 2014 when Michael Brown was shot by the police.
Teach students about Donald Sterling’s 2014 statements and discuss the different responses to those statements.
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language What are Microaggressions?
“Microaggression” is a term that was coined in the 1970s and more recently used by Derald Wing Sue, a Columbia University professor, to describe the “brief and commonplace verbal, behavioral or environmental indignities—whether intentional or unintentional—which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults to people from…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening, Language Arts This lesson provides an opportunity for students to discuss the homicide of Renisha McBride, who was shot to death while seeking help after being in a car accident. Similar to Trayvon Martin, both victims were black and in both cases, the shooter was white. Also similar was the perpetrator’s claim of self-defense. Students will learn more about these cases and analyze the role of…
GRADE LEVEL: High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, ADL brings together classroom resources for this special curriculum unit to reinforce the significance of this act, signed by President Ronald Reagan on August 10, 1988. This law issued a formal apology and gave reparations to the 60,000 surviving Japanese Americans who were a part of the 120,000 Japanese Americans…
Students learn about Shirley Chisholm’s life and accomplishments during the 1960s and 1970s and the social issues the U.S. grappled with during that time.